EPO/UK-IPO/DPMA: Productivity Benchmarking Study in the Patent Grant Procedure Available On-Line.
The European Patent Office (EPO), the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) and the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) have published an independent study drafted by Ernst & Young which benchmarks productivity in the patent grant procedure at the three offices. According to the Offices, the purpose was to identify best practice in the patent search and examination procedures with a view to enabling each office to adapt its own practice in the interests of streamlining and efficiency. The study clearly identifies disparities in productivity between the EPO and the two national offices, although some of the differences are largely due to varying procedures. In particular, the analysis found that EPO's productivity falls significantly behind the level of the national offices and identified a 50% difference in productivity between the EPO and the national offices. Howver, this difference is said to be to some extent caused by the methodical features, since effort for written opinions and the involvement of the examining division cannot be properly accounted for. According to the study, the total effect of these features and eight other explanatory factors may explain a productivity difference of 35% - 45% with two factors remaining that may be able to explain the residual:
"[...] The following factors contribute most to explaining the productivity difference:
Measurement of written opinions: The EPO prepares written opinions on 82% of its searches, but only 58% of searches reach the examination stage. While this effort contributes to making the overall process efficient, it negatively affects productivity in the existing measurement framework, because the written opinions are not accounted for like a stand-alone product [...].
Involvement of the examining division: As mentioned above, patent decisions at the EPO require the involvement of the whole examining division (examiner in charge plus two additional examiners), while final decisions at the national offices are the sole responsibility of one dedicated examiner per case. Likewise, the examining division is involved when it comes to oral proceedings [...]. Obviously, this factor has a negative impact on productivity of the EPO compared to the national offices.
Applications not filed in an examiner's mother tongue: EPO examiners are required to examine applications submitted not in their mother tongue, which may be difficult as it is crucial to thoroughly understand the claims. This may require a higher time investment. In addition, they are more likely to have to handle applications that were translated before filing, which may result in a loss of quality of the application document [...].
Motivational issues: The evident difference in sickness days indicates that some sort of motivational issue exists at the EPO and is very likely to impact productivity [...].
In the aggregate, the total effect of ten quantifiable explanatory factors may explain a productivity difference of 35% - 45% between the EPO and the national offices (compared to 50% difference as measured by P2 and P3) with two factors remaining that may be able to explain the residual of the difference.
Please note that the quantitative assessment of the factors is based on a number of assumptions which are highly sensitive to variations. Nevertheless, all factors have been evaluated with due diligence and validated with representatives of all three offices, so they should provide a good and reliable overall picture of the actual situation.
It should be mentioned again that a substantial portion of the difference is a result of either the existing productivity measurement framework or the procedural environment (categories 1 and 2), thus is not necessarily an indicator for lower performance of individual examiners. Therefore, from a patent office's point of view, any improvement planned could only affect part of the measured productivity differences.
As a final remark, we would like to emphasize that throughout the whole project there was an extraordinary good cooperation and relationship between the participating patent offices and the consultant team. We appreciate the support provided by all three patent offices and hope that this study will promote the positive future development of all three offices. [...]"
Hmmm ... The evident difference in sickness days indicates that some sort of motivational issue exists at the EPO and is very likely to impact productivity - is work at EPO so much unhealthier than work at NPOs or should sickness days be understood as days of industrial action? Or am I completely misguided so far?
independent study drafted by 
Patents
